#toxic.

That's years of my life without safety,

"every apology you give sounds rehearsed". riko @ ichirou / @llosgcariad

❝ Do they ? I would apologize for that, if it met your standards. ❞

Ichirou's voice is mild but razor sharp — constantly and quietly calculating. He has seen pictures of Riko Moriyama, most of them related to that sport, none of them significant enough to remember. What he would like to forget is the image of a small child, impossibly fragile even though he'd taken away the one good person left in this world.

Maybe he sees nothing of their mother in Riko's face. Maybe he chooses not to.

Either way, Ichirou is wildly unimpressed. He huffs a long sigh, weighing Neil Josten's assessment. A liability. In more ways than merely the blatant ones. If it were only about bad behavior — violence, terrible sportsmanship — he's sure Riko could be trained better. But the problem has much deeper and much more poisoned roots. Ichirou can see the hallmarks of their uncle written in every inch of his brother's posture, in every inflection of his words.

Their father handed off the spare to Tetsuji, and in doing so created a schism of loyalty. Riko is his, not Kengo's. And, by extent, not Ichirou's.

He's not a fan of pieces on his board that won't do as he say.

His hand strays to the weapon neatly concealed behind his finely stitched blazer and he tilts his head to the side, as if searching for something in Riko's face.

ATHENA BELL ( & DOVE CAMERON ) is looking for her EX PARTNER: